Oblong High School's football team won the annual Crawford County Shrine Game over rival Palestine-Hutsonville Friday night (Sept. 15), as the Panthers scored a 15-6 win at Palestine. It was the fourth straight win in the series for the Panthers, meaning the senior class at OHS has never lost a Shrine Game. (Josh Brown photo)

Five top-10 finishes were enough - barely - for Robinson High School's boys' cross country team to win a four-team meet at Newton Tuesday (Sept. 19).

The Maroons and Olney swept the top 10 spots in the race, but Robinson took the top three spots, allowing them to a pick up a 25-30 win. Effingham came in third with 81 points, while Newton did not have enough runners to post a team score.

"It turned into almost a dual between us and Olney," RHS head coach Tony Cork said. "For the first mile, they had several guys ahead of ours, but when they came out of the woods with 200 yards to go, Olney had one guy ahead of our top three and one right behind. When I got to the finish line, I found out we went 1-2-3 and Olney was 4-5. That couldn't have went any better."

They can either be high-scoring shootouts or a low-scoring, grind-it-out type of contest.

Friday night's annual Shrine Game was the latter, with rivals Oblong and Palestine-Hutsonville going toe-to-toe for four quarters.

But, when the dust settled, the Panthers came away with the victory again, as the picked up a 15-6 win in Palestine.

"This was a defensive battle," OHS head coach Chad Pusey said. "It was well played on both sides. It wasn't easy, but we got it done. A win is a win and I'll take it."

"The kids played hard, we just had too many mistakes," PHS-HHS head coach Joe Stambaugh said. "It was two evenly-matched teams out there. We got max effort from our kids, but it just wasn't enough with all the mistakes."

Although it has become by necessity, a youth movement has taken over Robinson High School's football team and it is starting to bear results.

Led by a host of underclassmen, the Maroons charged their way to victory for the first time Friday night (Sept. 15), running over Casey-Westfield for a 33-20 victory in the Little Illini Conference contest.

"I am real happy for these young men," RHS head coach Tim Nolen said. "They deserved a victory. They have worked very hard and overcome a ton of adversity. We said before the game that one of these teams had to come out and be the aggressor and we did that."